Performer: Harriet Krijgh

This week’s subscription concerts of the Sydney Symphony Orchestra featured only British music that was composed in the last century; three very different works in terms of compositional approach and musical language.

Sofia Gubaidulina has always been drawn to non-traditional sounds, something which invariably landed her in trouble during the Soviet era. The bayan, a 200-button Russian accordion, became the source for many of those sounds in solo and concerted pieces. “It breathes,” she has said, possessing an “earthy quality like no other instrument”.

Harriet Krijgh and Gustavo Gimeno excel in their Liverpool debuts, and the RLPO earn a rapturous reception for a ravishing Scheherazade, destined to remain long in the memory.